Tag Archives: Billzac

Private Harry Victor Turner, who served with the 16th Battalion at Gallipoli, 1915. Source: State Library of South Australia

by the ANDC team

The Oxford Word of the Month is written by members of the Australian National Dictionary Centre and published each month by Oxford University Press Australia. Each Word of the Month looks at an Australian word or term in some detail, providing a history of the term and its role in current Australian society. If you wish to receive Word of the Month by email you can subscribe at the Oxford University Press Australia website.

Our Word of the Month for December is ‘Billzac’: a typical Australian soldier. ‘Billzac’ was one of a number of nicknames given to Australian soldiers during the First World War. You can read the full Word of the Month in PDF form on our website or read it in anonline format.

‘Billzac’ is one of the many terms discussed in ANDC director Amanda Laugesen’s new book Furphies and Whizz-Bangs: Anzac Slang from the Great War. This book is now available from Oxford University Press.